Blog Revamping

Friday, 29 October 2004

Each time after working out at the gym, on my way home, I need to pass by delicious glass counters containing beautiful & sinful cakes, did I mention SINFUL??? Arrghhh, it's completely insane to have worked out and then minus it off by getting my hands on these lovely & delicious cakes, did I mention SINFUL??? :p haha I have to say it's indulgence definitely!!! Gosh, help me!

Awww most time the cakes will melt my heart and they'll be screaming "Take me home! Take me home!" **GULP**

Worst of all, these lovely, did I mention SINFUL??? goodies are off 50% after 8pm or was it 7pm. Gee I can't recall now cos they keep on changing the time.

Lemme see which one shall I intro first... OK how about this yummy looking Blueberry Muffin. Always buy this or the Banana Muffin for my boiboi. He loves them and gets delighted when he sees the cake box. The texture is dense and it has lots of sticky blueberries in it. I like it best after zapping in the microwave oven for a few secs (nothing more than 10 secs, else it will turn out rock hard).

Next up is the Chocolate Brownie. It's my mom's fave. Very very dense texture, filled with walnuts and chocful (pun intended) of chocolate taste.

This round, its my first time seeing a plain Chocolate Cake signage there. Don't look anything special but I though, what the heck... The chocolate ganache is very very smooth. Thank goodness they used semi bitter chocolates and not milk chocolates. Yummmm...

I've always fancied their Strawberry Cheesecake. Its just plain cheesecake topped with fresh strawberries. However, it was not available this round. Opted for a Marbled Cheesecake instead. Hmmm lots of new flavours these days eh...

Hey, I think I got cheated! How can the marbled effect just on top of the cake qualify this cake to be named Marble Cheesecake??? Duhhhh... but nevermind, its the taste that counts. As always, their cheesecake is always very very rich. Can never eat one whole piece in one sitting. Usually will share a piece around with family members.

This is Fruit Flan but it doesn't look like one I usually find at normal bakeries. Its layered vanilla sponge cake topped with lots of chopped fresh fruits. I like this one. Very light and the fruits combination on top is fantastic to cut out the richness of the cream sandwiched in between the sponge.

All these yummy cakes can be found at Tempts Coffee House, New World Renaissance Hotel. They have pastries, breads and sandwiches too.

Tuesday, 26 October 2004

Tupai is the Malay word for squirrel. The double usage of some Malay words meant many, so Tupai Tupai means more than one squirrel.

This was an "accident" choice actually. Last nite, it was already past 9pm, hubby asked what do I feel like having. I told him Taiwanese or Shanghainese dumplings after thinking of Renee's. Conversation went like this...

Hubby: Where to find them?
Me: Hmm so late already, by the time we reach Ampang Point they would be closing.
Hubby: How about Sg Wang (a very old but not dated shopping mall)?
Me: Nahhh, not Esquire Kitchen too, cos closing soon too.
Hubby: How about the sui kow (another type of dumpling but this one serve in soup) at Sg Besi?
Me: Nope I dun want those type and that place don't have nice sui kow plus its expensive.
Hubby: So how lahhh??
Me: Do you think I'm pregnant??
Hubby: No, I don't remembering you being this picky during pregnancy.
Me: Well, different pregnancy, different behaviour!
Hubby: But this is worst than having such demands. Its more like you've got so many REQUIREMENTS!!
Me: Hahahaha... ok, I'm NOT preggy.
(by then we were passing by Jalan Hang Tuah Fire Station)
Me: How about going for Hokkien Char since we're already here?
Hubby: OK

After driving past the shop, all the available parking lots been taken up, including the illegal spaces. So drove thru the lane and thought of coming out of Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka. Darn, forgot they've blocked the road. No choice but to turn right instead.

So there we went... Gosh its FREE parking... so hard to find such places in the city. One plus point there hehehe. Saw the signboard and apparently the place belonged to some Malay press association or something.

The place is amazing. Basically look like a rustic kampung with the attap roof. Took a seat and soak in the ambience. The floors are completely built on silts and its entirely made out of wooden planks. Can hear creaking sounds each time people walked pass by. True to their tagline "Suasana di Rimba Kuala Lumpur" (Forest in Kuala Lumpur), the place looked as if its situated in the middle of a forest. It's amazing to find this place hidden right in the middle of the city.

Wahh they've got a few elevated wakaf (did I got the right Malay word here of a pavilion?) and it has low table. One need to sit bersila (cross legged in Malay) style. Cushions are provided.

Hubby: Tandas sini untuk orang tinggi lampai ya?
(The toilet here is meant for tall people?)
Miss A trying to hide her laughter: Ya lah, boleh guna tandas dalam bilik-bilik kecil
(Yes, can use those water closet inside the cubicles)
Hubby: Macam ini lebih baik jangan bina itu itu errr tempat kencing tu.
(Like that may as well don't build the urinals - he didn't know what urinal was known as in Malay)
Miss A: Itu tak tau lah
(She quickly walked away before hubby continue to ask her more sarky stuff. I was busy coughing away cos this happened when I was sipping my juice. I got chocked!!)

Came the bubur lambuk (rice porridge with minced meat and spices ala Malay which is usually available during Ramadhan {fasting month for the Muslims} month). Both hubby and I stared into the bowl, then to each other, then to the waiter whom delivered it.

Aduhai...(an expression in Malay)! This is so funny. Anyway, since it's our first time tasting bubur lambuk and haven't got round tasting the so called Royal Bubur Lambuk endorsed by the previous late Sultan of Selangor (this porridge is distributed free to the Muslims at a mosque in Kampung Baru), so can't comment much on it except that I feel more minced meat and spices could do more justice. And would be perfect if its topped with fresh spring onions plus deep fried shallots.

Came the bamboo lala dish fried ala kum heong (RM12.00) (longish shaped shell fish stir fried in dried shrimp, wee bit of curry powder and lots of curry leaves). Taste not bad. This dish is made famous by the Chinese restaurant. The dishes Tupai Tupai served is kinda of muhhibah (harmony in Malay. Its coined to represent the harmony living of the three major races in Malaysia which are the Malay, Chinese and Indian) a bit. Ohhh gosh, here we go again...

By then my Spring Onion and Ginger Stir Fry Beef Kueh Teow (RM6.80) (Flat rice noodles stir fried in beef, spring onion and ginger) came, my stomach is filled with all the air I sucked in during all the laughters sarky hubby created. This dish a bit on the salty note. I don't blame them for I've been on a low sodium diet since childhood. Overall, its quite close to those I've tasted in Chinese noodle dai zhau (big fry - stir fry stalls).

Hubby: Eh... how come the porridge got paper one??
(He removed the brownish bits from his mouth and place them on the table to show me)
Me trying to join in his sarkiness: I think its complimentary from the Malay press association (very straight face)
Hubby: Oh yeah horrr... hmmmm...

Anyway, he whacked the whole bowl of porridge. Miss A walked by and hubby waved for her.

I was nearly choking on my noodles by then. Hubby is an amazing creature. I guess Malaysians are very tolerant lot. I would have stopped after the bit of paper is found.

Miss A came with the porridge and someone wearing batik shirt came by. I assumed he's a manager or something. Without even apologising, he just mentioned that the porridge is complimentary and walked off.

OK and you think that was all the sarkiness??? Wait till you hear this, Tupai Tupai has got a weighing scale right at the entrance (photo taken using my mobile so kinda blur)!!! Yes, don't ask me why and funny I didn't ask them too hehehe. No No, we did not weigh ourselves there ok hahaha

The yellow signage on the left said "Sebelum, Selepas" (Before, After) and the white signage said "Perhatian: Pembaziran melebihi 100gm akan dikenakan bayaran RM10/100gm" (Notice: Wastage more than 100gm will be charged RM10/100gm). We just wondered why the white notice is placed there cos its certainly not the right scale to weight food wastages. Hubby had the cheek to ask me, how do they know which 100gm you've eaten is wastage??? Gossshhh... more air into my tummy!

OK OK conclusion - maybe the white signage was meant for those who are taking the Ramadhan buffet (adult RM33) and it was not supposed to have placed next to the weighing scale ahahaha!!!

I think for this dinner, I had "eaten" more air than the food served at Tupai Tupai. Overall, I think I'll visit again to try other dishes. They've got plenty of ala carte dishes in the menu other than the usual fried noodles and rice. Their signboard said their speciality was ikan bakar (grill fish) but it was only available in teh buffet. Strange isn't it? Great place to have muhibbah lunch, dinner or supper!

My previous comments are all gone after I added in Haloscan commenting and trackback to this blog!!! Strangely I can receive comments on my email but those I think its not from Haloscan. Sighhh... any idea how to fix this?? :(

Monday, 25 October 2004

A friend of my mother brought this back from China. I have yet to seen them fresh in Kuala Lumpur. It's usually found dried as part of the ingredients used by the Chinese to boil savoury or sweet soup.

As shown here, the left are fresh dates and the right are dried dates.

The texture of the fresh dates are crunchy, kinda like those crunchy apple. Its sweet but not as sweet as in its dried format. A very refreshing change indeed!

Tuesday, 19 October 2004

This place is a discovery of sort recently even though it has been around for some years nearby my office. Never got to check out this place until yesterday. I was kinda overloaded with the very lemak (rich) curry chicken gravy that I had for lunch. So I wanted something light and so was hubby.

So we took a walk down the road and saw Ciccio blue neon. Told hubby that this place serves wood fire pizza and in we went. The menu listed down salads, soups, appetizers (I can only recall soft shelled crabs and calamari) and bruschetta (a long list too) for starters. There were some main courses, pasta and of course pizza. I was impressed with the range of pizza they serving. Its 2 pages long mind you.

Anyway since we wanted light, we ordered Al Funghi bruschetta (RM12) and Contadina Pizza (RM25). The bruschetta came with sliced sautéed fresh mushroom topped with brie. The thickness of the French bread was just nice, not too thick nor too thin, crispy on the outside but soft on the inside. Looks like its lightly brushed with olive oil. My only regret about this dish was the slice of brie… its just too thinly sliced and looked miserably lonely on top there haha. They should have been slightly generous there as they have with the mushroom.

Then came the Contadina Pizza. It’s about 12” in diameter. A very generous size for two of us. It looked great with a tomato based sauce and I can see lots of toppings there – sliced chicken sausages; mushrooms, sliced peppers in yellow, red and green; onion rings; and generously topped with mozzarella. There is one vegetable in there that I could not identify though, its like a heart of some leafy vegetables. Anyhow, it blended well there. The base is crispy and has a nice smoky flavour. You can actually watch the chef whip your pizza at the bar counter. The wood fire oven is just next to the bar. For me, this is well worth than the same amount spent at fast food or take away pizza anytime!

Can’t believe it when hubby asked for dessert menu cos I knew he was kinda full already. I guess it’s hard to resist. He ordered a Cassata alla Siciliana (RM14). Something like layered cake/biscuit with ricotta cheese and Sicilian ice-cream. This one tasted frozen. Wished they have at least let it stand for a while before serving or do the short cut way – zap in the microwave over for a few seconds. Tasted like vanilla ice-cream in between the layer of cake like biscuit. It also has candied peels in it.

I like its straightforwardness in the cooking style and ingredients used and the place displayed intimate candle lit tables, rustic décor and if you chose to sit outside at the terrace, you can listen to the water trickling down its water feature on one wall. It gave a warm and easy feeling, so as the service and the patrons too.

Wednesday, 13 October 2004

It started first thing in the morning, tried to call Unker T but no ringing tone at all was heard on my mobile. However, the stewpit message came that a call was made thru and 10 sen was deducted. Well, not that I'm kiamsap (stingy in a Chinese dialect - Hokkien) over that 10 sen but hey, I did not hear anything at all, aiyoh.

Asked my fellow colleague to try using his mobile and it can call. Next I asked Mr BamBam to try slotting my sim into his mobile. He managed to call Gummi Bear. Eh but then both phones got hung after the call. Eeeeekkkk!!!!

I slot the sim back to mine and IT WORKED again!!!! Arggghhhh... Oh dear and my warranty is expiring end of this month. Means I gotta find time to drop by the service centre soon! Sighhh...

Next came Mr L whom paged me on MSN Messenger. The moment his message popped up... guess what?? My mouse died. I bought it 3 days ago grrrrrr.....! Restarted PC, and it's still not working sighhhh... Thank goodness my trusty 10 year old mouse is still working fine.

Things don't seem to move smoothly there after. My PC slowed down, so i scanned it for spyware. Restarted and I can't seems to get my mail going. Arrghhhh!!!!! Took the mail about 10 mins just to open... does this means something or what?!?!

Came afternoon... my Yahoo Messenger died on me and at the same time, my mail is giving out error whilst sending/receiving. Arrrggghhhhhh... Its just not my day! Bwwwaaaahawaaaa...

Restarted again and again and again... I lost count actually!

Everything seems to be working fine around 5pm except the sky decided to pour heavily at the perfectly chosen hour :-( and I've got yoga at 6.30pm sighhh...

Thank goodness, the rain decided to slow down to a drizzle and I managed to reach gym on time but to discover that my yoga instructor has not recovered from his last week's accident. Hmmm... luckily they substituted with body balance. After some nice stretches and balance I'm all well and going. Felt extremely great after a nice hot shower.....

Monday, 11 October 2004

I always wonder what's in a guy's mind all the time?? Duhhh... asked hubby to select some oranges whilst I got my hand busy with the apples.

Somehow this one got into the basket...

Aiyoyo! How can its possible not to notice such a big bruise on it??? Oh yeah, its on the left (your left) eye haha I circled that patch and left it on the basket for him to discover. Darn I'm so evil!!! :D

Friday, 8 October 2004

Can you stomach another layered goodie? Hehheh, please bear with me, we have lots of birthday recently and I've yummilicious cakes to recommend ;-) So hang on there!

This one is Pandan Layered Cake from Golden Bake at SS2, PJ. The decor is plain and simple. Just scattering of some dessicated coconut and squirts of butter cream flowers. My family liked this cos they don't fancy cakes topped with loads of cream.

Here's the close-up of the cross section:

Pandan leaf is akin to the usage of vanilla essense/pod in the western world. Asians used pandan leaf and essence in both sweet and savoury recipes. When the leaves are crushed, it emit a subtle fragrant. At times, these leaves are left in the pantry or cabinets to prevent invasion of pests.

This cake consisted of 2 types of layering - sponge cake and a paste made from arrowroot flour (the brand well known is Hoen Kwe which is easily available at sundry shops or supermarkets). Both of which are flavoured with pandan essense. The sponge cake texture is fine and smooth. It went well with the pandan paste. Even though both were made with pandan flavouring, it does not emit an overly strong pandan flavour. This cake, I liked it chilled and best of all its not very sweet. Just nice in my opinion.

They have another version made of taro. I like the taro one too. Well, if you order the cake a day earlier, you can ask them to have half a cake made of pandan and the other half made of taro.

Tuesday, 5 October 2004

Agar-agar either come in strips or powdered. They're mainly used in Asian homes to make jelly and can be found easily as compared with gelatin. I guess its popular here cos the Muslims can use it without worrying its source since they're made from certain type of algae or seaweed. The texture of this jelly is kinda firm and one can actually use toothpick or fork to pick them up as compared with jello.

I've tried this agar-agar the first time in the office on one of my colleague's birthday. His wi fe sent him a cake made from agar-agar. We have a great time staring at the cake cos it came errrr with a bikini babe lying on a bed hahahaha... yeah that's the shape of the cake, no joke ok.

Anyway, I managed to get the number from him and ordered 2 such cakes for a couple of birthdays. The madam said she have lots designs available to choose from!!! Gosh, so mind boggling... anyway I just called up and she suggested the shapes and then I just go to her home (yeah she's home based) to collect my cake on designated date.

The cake is actually made from layers of clear and santan (coconut milk) agar-agar. The clever usage of vegetable colourings actually made it looked very nice and interesting. As for the taste, its really nice and firm. Its indeed something different from the usual birthday cakes with creams. Great for children parties as its not messy at all. My 2 year old touched his cake and voila his finger still clean hehehe but not that part of the cake though :p

These are the 2 designs I've ordered so far...

Sports car

and my boiboi's fave - Barney!

Boiboi was so excited when he saw Barney that he jumped up and down on his seat!!! There you go, one happy little customer!